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RBC Basically Shut Down My Whole Banking Account

By computerology - 08/28/2009

I'm furious. I've been a customer of RBC Royal Bank for 10 years, since 1999. I was even staff at RBC Dominion Securities for three years and held staff accounts at the bank during the times that I worked for them. My complaint, review, whatever you would call it is now 40 days after the initial screw up on their part and still nothing has been resolved. All I receive now is stonewalling on behalf of the bank, and I'm not even looking for any damages, save for maybe a few NSF charges getting reversed that have accrued due to their actions.

It all started when I tried to turn my financial situation around. I had been renting a house for $1040 plus utilities alone. It was a struggle, running my own home based business in this economy, and a struggle to make ends meet. Even in this horrible economic climate, I still managed to get my rent and utilities paid, including a $100 per month payment to RBC Visa. My account is quite basic, I only have a $2500 limit on my Visa card and a $500 overdraft facility on my bank account.

In order to turn my financial situation around, I got permission from my landlord to sublet my premises and filled my place up with roommates. Yay. My rent and utilities were now covered by my roommates and effectively my living and shelter cost were now free.

One of my tenants was on social assistance and the ministry gave me two cheques. One for $200 for the damage deposit, and one for $433 for the first month's rent. My account was at a balance of roughly $80, and I deposited the two cheques for a total of $633. My account has an overdraft facility of $500 - so I withdrew $1000 to pay my landlord, leaving still some room on the overdraft facility to cover my $100 monthly VISA payment.

Somewhere, in the dark annals of RBC, trouble was brewing. Without warning, phone call, letter, or anything, they decided to lock my client card and restrict all of my accounts because of this transaction. I didn't find this out until Friday the 17th- 4 days after I made the deposit, when I attempted to pop my card into the bank machine the machine would just spit it back out before I could do anything.

During this time, I had been securing more tenants for my premises. My financial management was sound. I had deposited the cheques, withrdrew the monies, bringing my account to an overdraft position, the VISA payment should have come out, and then by Saturday I had a new tenant moving in for a $100 damage deposit plus rent of $433 which would have more than covered my overdrawn position. Unfortunately, the bank had locked my account so even when I received the money from my tenant, I couldn't put it into my RBC account because my cards were locked up.

I called on the 17th their client care center and asked them why my card was locked. They said there was some transactions that had occurred outside of my regular pattern and that I would need to present ID in the branch and confirm the transactions. I assumed it had to do with the social assistance cheques, I've heard stories of photocopied assistance cheques being used for fraud, and since I was listed as self-employed, it made sense.

I went to the branch the very next day, presented ID. But this is where things started to get bizarre. Apparently risk management would not do anything unless they could speak to my branch manager. Now I deal with the downtown main branch, I don't know anyone there. I decided to deal there because I had worked downtown, and I had had some bad experiences dealing with Surrey branches because they treat everyone like criminals out there. So they said I had to wait until Monday and go back to the branch.

Monday I showed up at the branch, presented ID, and the poor CSR there was absolutely dumbfounded with the response she was getting from Risk Management. She looked at my account, and from her perspective, nothing was really amiss. I had an overdraft, I used it, I had a $1000 cash back limit on ATM deposited cheques, and I had only taken $600. My withdrawal limit was $1000 per day, and my POS limit was $10000.

Risk Management was telling her that they wanted to wait on a 5-day hold for the cheques to clear, which was abnormal considering my cash back limits. She later realized that 5 days had passed, and checked- the cheques had of course cleared. RBC Risk Management still refused to unlock my accounts unless someone in my branch who had a personal relationship with me unlocked them themselves. I was beside myself. 4 hours now spent in the branches and I had made zero headway, even though the cheques had cleared?

Exasperated, I asked her to call my branch. If I had travelled across town to get to my branch then they would be closed by the time I got there, and I had already presented ID to her. She got the Branch Manager from the downtown main branch on the phone, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Someone who could clean up this mess. Little did I know this guy was worse than the Risk Management people. Things were about to go from bad to horrible.

I talked to the guy briefly, told him my story. About the tenant, the social assistance cheques, how there must have been a mix-up. How I just wanted my accounts unlocked so that I could go back to normal banking life. He instructed me he would not unlock my accounts, that he was removing my overdraft facility, and the only way that I could use my account was if I brought my account out of overdraft (by depositing money, he with the stroke of a key had removed $500 in available credit), and that even if I brought my account out of overdraft, I would have to appear in the branch and present ID in order to have my account restricted from 'deposit only' status.

Furthermore, he told me that I would have to make all my deposits via the teller; that my ATM card was locked. Eventually, he climbed down a little bit. He said I could use the ATM card to make deposits. But I'd still need to go to the branch to remove the lock (even if I dropped in a cheque for $10000 that cleared) and that he was still removing my overdraft.

It's important to note that in 10 years, I've never once deposited a bad, fraudulent cheque. I've never once had a client cheque I've deposited bounce on me. I rarely have missed a monthly VISA payment, even though my VISA was over its limit and I wasn't making any headway at all.

I complained to the RBC Ombudsman's office. I used to work at RBC, and I could see where this was going. Risk Management loaded up my branch manager with crap to say, and he piped it off-hook line and sinker and wouldn't budge. The Ombudsman's office wanted me to file a complaint with client care first and forwarded my complaint to some goof in Montreal who didn't bother to phone me, yet chose to write me a letter and mail it.

I faxed my complaint in and he had it in his hands within 48 hours. His mail to me took at least 7 days to arrive. For the most technologically advanced bank in Canada the horse and cart delivery method was a joke. He could have at least faxed me a copy and mailed the original.

His response was an exercise in revisionist history. He said that when I deposited the cheques, they did a review of my account and determined that I was kiting. Kiting is where you are covering credit payments with other credit to continually keep all the credit in a circle, never paying anything off. Typically kiting is done with a series of bank accounts at different banks where you write cheques paying down the overdraft from each of them in a circle. Kiting is the same thing with credit cards, where you withdraw a bit from one and then pay it off with another.

These were my main accounts. Credit card. I deposit money to them regularly. I have no other accounts. How the hell could I be kiting? Furthermore, nobody told me of any of this crap when my accounts were locked. They just said they wanted the cheques to clear.

With my overdraft locked and accounts locked the accounts are useless to me. I don't mind paying them back for the overdraft, but I would have appreciated a gradual removal or at least warning. I have to cash my cheques at the local money mart because I don't trust giving them to the bank; the money is safer in cash than it is handing it over to them.

They also told me in some kooky story that my Visa limit was the cause of my troubles. I told them that this was hogwash. On the 8th I had spoken to Visa and made arrangements for an extra payment of $96 on the 26th of the month. Ironically, when I got back from the branch on the 19th, they called - informing me that my $100 automatic payment had been returned. They were still all right with me, after I told them the stupid things that had occurred that day.

In the end, now I'm waiting for 40 days for another complaint via the Ombudsman's office. I carry all my money in cash. I haven't been able to make a Visa payment since then because my accounts are locked. I lost $500 in available credit, and I'm paying 4% to cash my cheques. My VIP banking package is still costing me $30 per month.

My Branch Manager on the phone was quick to offer to kill my VIP service account - but I told him no ** way. You see you have to qualify for a VIP account - and if he took that off then I wouldn't have a leg to stand on. I'm furious. The people at this bank have changed so much. When I first worked there, they bent over backwards for clients.

Now it seems that they don't want anyone who doesn't keep $30000 in the bank. What's dumb, is that when you keep a lot of money in cash in the bank, you don't even pay fees. I'm paying fees through the nose for my services, ranging from OD protection to unlimited transactions to Visa interest. They're making a killing off of my financial situation. Just as I was about to turn it around, they went and kicked me in the balls. What a bunch of jerks. Even the Ombudsman's office is useless as a last resort complaint.

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How can such an awesome Canadian Bank allow a US counterpart be such an embarrassment

- 08/08/2009

FT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA -- I have been banking with RBC Royal Bank in Canada for 7 years and RBC Bank USA for 4 years. I always received nothing less than amazing customer service in Canada and expected the same when I opened a cross-border account in the USA. After moving to the USA in 2007 I kept both banks open in order to maintain relations in both countries for ease of cross-border transfers.

To my amazement I recently incurred 500.00 in service charges on my US account. The reason, we deposited a check into the ATM, drawn on a different US bank that we have. Because we just moved to Florida from Mississippi we are currently trying to convert all of our ACH auto pays from one bank to the other. One of the auto pays that was to convert to RBC was done quicker than we were informed. We caught this in time on Sunday to run to the ATM and deposit a check from the other bank in Mississippi, as the item was to clear on Monday. In our haste we forgot to sign the deposited check.

The person who verified the deposits noticed there was no signature and reversed the deposit. We still had enough funds to clear the ACH Payment that clearing, however the 15+ pocket charge transactions that we had already done on our card now had no funds available to clear. Rather than call us on Tuesday morning to notify of the missing signature, no one called.

When we went online to check our account Thursday night, we discovered the problem. Every item $2-20 that cleared from our pocket check card incurred a $35 NSF plus a $6 reentry fee. Although the Canadian reps were very concerned they were not able to reverse anything over 10.00. We went to the branch in Florida at 9:00 am Friday to discuss the situation with the branch manager who said it was not their error.

He contacted the Senior area representative who offered to refund us 49.00. I was totally appalled by this!! In 30 years of banking I have received 1 NSF Charge prior to this (which was reversed). The gal at customer service in Rocky Mount, NC was pleasant and was able to manage a reversal of 225.00 from the bank manager in Ft Lauderdale, because again, it was "our" error.

OK, charge us for entry fees, but this is absolutely ridiculous. I am sick to my stomach about this. RBC Financial Group in Canada needs to take a close look at their US counterpart to see how they are ripping people off because of their lack of knowledge about how their own systems work. This bank is an embarrassment to RBC Financial Group in Canada. Monday, I call the ombudsman in Toronto, wish me luck!

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Fees

By Teresa - 07/18/2008

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA -- RBC Bank recently purchased First American Bank in Alabama. Due to the drastic change in the way that they post your deposits and check card fees it threw my account into the negative. I continued to get hit with fees while my deposit was waiting to be posted (for three days). This ended up costing me over $500 dollars just in bank fees. I've had the same checking account for 10 years and have never had this kind of issue.

After speaking with RBC customer service and getting nothing resolved other than them passing me off to one of the branches, I've made the decision to close my account and go with a more local bank. I would advise anyone looking to bank with RBC to completely check out the processing of their deposits and check card transaction before making the decision to open an account. Who wants to use a bank that's based in Canada anyway? We live in the USA people!!!

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Petty

By lucky123 - 09/22/2009

ASHEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA -- I took a check into RBC Bank to get it cashed. The person that wrote me the check has an account there. The teller told me that there would be a 5 dollar charge for cashing the check. No I don't have an account there but the person that pays service and maintenance fees does. I think this is petty and cheap just like a pawn shop.

My bank does not do this. If I wrote someone a check and they tried to cash it at my bank and was charged a fee to do so I would quit them in a second. I pay my bank to honor the checks that I write to anyone. RBC is petty and cheap. If someone writes me a check from RBC I have to charge them 10 dollars extra to accept their check. That is sick. I guess that has become the American way. Oh my god!!!